Alumni Profile: Anita Bateman ’98

Hope’s purpose is to develop informed, broadly educated
citizens who think deeply
about fundamental issues and who will become leaders in their professions
and their
communities. How well has Hope College done in reaching its goals?
The answer lies
in the personal and professional lives of the approximately 30,000
men and women
who claim Hope as their alma mater. Many of these alumni have brought
honor upon
themselves, their professions, and Hope College through exceptional
achievement.

Anita Bateman has grown to greatly
appreciate her education from Hope over
the years as she recognizes the valuable
lessons Hope taught her beyond her computer
science degree.

One of the lessons Anita values most is
how to apply her Christian faith to her
everyday life. “Understanding and thinking
about how my faith applies and how I
live out my faith is something I learned
about in my religion classes, and it’s still
something I really think about today,” she
says.

Anita also appreciates that she was able
to take courses outside of her major and
learn from those. “Some of the things I
learned about myself and about how I
work with other people, I learned in my
core requirement and elective classes,” she
says.

After graduating from Hope, Anita
signed on with IBM as a software engineer.
She later moved into a team leadership
position, and now currently serves in an IT Architecture position,
in which
she enjoys developing some of IBM’s newest software. Throughout
her career
she has found that Hope’s department of computer science
prepared her well, and
she feels lucky to have had access to the great resources at Hope.

Outside of academics, Anita participated in Nykerk, I.VE League,
Mortar
Board, Summer of Service, and Fellowship of Christian Students.
Through such
activities, she was constantly interacting with others, and she
recommends that
same amount of involvement to other students.

“Find an activity
or community within the college that you enjoy and get
involved in that,” she advises.

Those interactions with student communities, as well as courses
within and
outside of her major, allowed Anita to gain an education that she
feels serves her
exceedingly well.

“Through Hope, I gained the ability to develop other skills
that people sometimes don’t think about,” says Anita. “Things
like problem solving, communications,
relationship building, and cultural awareness—all of which
are extremely
important in businesses of all kinds and in life.”

This profile was written by Danielle K. Johnson, a 2008
Hope College graduate from Kalamazoo, Mich., for the 2008-09
Hope College Catalog.

Hope
People - Learn about the experiences of some of the
people connected with Hope College.